The Romans (Al-Room)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Alif-Lam-Mim. [These letters are one of the miracles of the Quran, and none but Allah (Alone) knows their meanings]. 1 The Byzantians have been overcome. 2 In the nearer land, and they, after their defeat will be victorious 3 Within three to nine years. To Allah belongs the command before and after. And that day the believers will rejoice 4 In the help of God. He helps whom He will; He is all-mighty, ever-merciful. 5 [This is] God's promise. Never does God fail to fulfil His promise -- but most people do not know this; 6 They know only some appearance of the life of the world, and are heedless of the Hereafter. 7 Do they not think deeply (in their ownselves) about themselves (how Allah created them from nothing, and similarly He will resurrect them)? Allah has created not the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them, except with truth and for an appointed term. And indeed many of mankind deny the Meeting with their Lord. [See Tafsir At-Tabari, Part 21, Page 24]. 8 Have they, then, never journeyed about the earth and beheld what happened in the end to those [deniers of the truth] who lived before their time? Greater were they in power than they are; and they left a stronger impact on the earth, and built it up even better than these [are doing]; and to them [too] came their apostles with all evidence of the truth: and so, [when they rejected the truth and thereupon perished,] it was not God who wronged them, but it was they who had wronged themselves. 9 Then the end of those who committed evil was evil, for they belied the signs of God, and they derided them. 10